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A few weeks ago, way up in northern New York, Democrat Bill Owens defeated Doug Hoffman, a Conservative Party candidate who drew support from the tea-steepage-pouch crowd all around the country to defeat the evil Dede Scozzafava.

The result hasn’t been finalized, and the final corrected counts are coming in, and absentee ballots are being counted as well. Every county board of elections in New York State is run with one Republican and one Democratic commissioner. If there were any anti-Hoffman shenanigans going on, the Republican commissioners would be screaming bloody murder.

Not one to just milquetoastedly play givesies-backsies, Hoffman went full wingnut with this insane, rambling letter to supporters accusing ACORN of attempting to steal the election in NY-23. The body of the letter is what one might typically expect from a disingenuous nutter, but my favorite part is this postscript:

I ran a different kind of campaign, one where Conservatives, Republicans, Libertarians, Tea Party and 9/12 activists rallied around. ACORN, the unions and Democratic Party were scared, and that’s why they tampered with the ballots of voters in NY-23. Will you please contribute today so we can show them that fair elections are the Will of the People? Thank you.

Yeah, the Democrats were so scared that they won the election. The unions were so scared, they helped Owens win the election.

“No one has touched those ballots or has access to those ballots except Board of Elections staff — and in a bipartisan manner,” he said…

…George J. Williams, Oswego County Republican chairman, said Mr. Hoffman’s assertion “is not accurate.” He said he roamed the county on Election Day and saw no evidence of tampering.

“We’re not going to take the blame because he didn’t hold his concession speech,” Mr. Williams said. “If there’s any doubt, I would never concede. I know things could happen. Did illegal things happen? No, I do not believe that.”

And it’s not over because ACORN stole an election or SEIU intimidated people. It’s over because the voters were given a stark choice between a candidate who was acutely aware – and concerned – about local issues, and a candidate who was acutely aware of what Glenn Beck’s listeners and viewers were concerned about.

In just a few days, the word ACORN has gone from being something that struck fear in the hearts of conservatives and Fox News commentators everywhere, to being the punchline of a joke.

You know the thing that I find most amusing about the NY race is that what they are basically telling every moderate Republican across the country is that it doesn’t matter if you’ve been a loyal Republican for decades, it doesn’t matter if you know the district and the people, it doesn’t matter if you fit the district, and it doesn’t matter that you have given decades to the party. It just doesn’t matter. If the teabagging wingnuts and the shrieking lunatics like Malkin don’t like you, high profile crackpots like Palin and Dick Armey and others are going to swoop in and back some clown who doesn’t even live in the district and then shit all over the area’s voters, telling them their interests are “parochial.”

There’s no way of knowing for sure who’s going to win, but odds are it’ll be Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate. After all, there’s a 50,000 person Republican enrollment advantage.

Some of it has to do with a traditional tug-of-war among Congressional candidates – macro versus micro. While House reps certainly are called upon regularly to weigh in on national issues, they are also expected to serve the constituents of their district, know their issues, and consider them carefully. Hoffman is an abject failure on all of those fronts, and he’s proud of it. Sure, he doesn’t live in the district he wants to represent, but that’s perfectly legal and small potatoes. (Lake Placid’s issues aren’t going to be altogether too different from those in Plattsburgh or Watertown when all is said and done).

Scozzafava is right to be butthurt about what’s happened to her, because no one ever said she was somehow subpar or ineffective as an Assemblywoman since 1999. (Well, as effective as a Republican Assemblyperson can be, but I digress). She’s garnered the support of her constituents regularly for a decade. One would presume that people like her, or like what she’s done. Her campaign was beset by failure and missteps, which only helped to hasten its demise. She claims, rightly, that her campaign was hijacked by people who care not one whit about the people and issues of NY-23, but are more concerned with the big-ticket national issues.

Even former Gov. George E. Pataki decided to endorse her conservative opponent.

“George Pataki is probably to the left of me on some issues,” Ms. Scozzafava said. “It leaves me a little baffled.”

No shit.

Upon learning of Scozzafava’s withdrawal, the Owens campaign issued this statement:

Over the course of her career, Dede has always committed to serving the people of Upstate New York before serving a partisan agenda,” he said in a statement. “Now more than ever we need bipartisan solutions to help bring jobs to Upstate New York to get our economy back on track and move our country forward. Those are the kinds of priorities I will fight for in Congress because that’s the kind of leadership Upstate New York needs right now.

The Hoffman campaign, however, was less gracious or conciliatory:

This morning’s events prove what we have said for the last week; this campaign is a horserace between me and Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked candidate, Bill Owens. At this moment, the Democratic Party, the Working Families Party, ACORN, Big Labor and pro-abortion groups are flooding the district with troops and they are flooding the airwaves with a million dollars worth of negative ads. They are throwing mud; they are trying to stop me

Given the juxtaposition of those two statements, on top of everything else, it makes sense that Scozzafava would give Hoffman a massive, “fuck you, too, buddy”.

After Scozzafava’s endorsement of Owens was confirmed, spokespeople for the Hoffman campaign delved into serious self-parody and a complete lack of perspective or sense of irony. After everyone from Sarah Palin to Fred Thompson to the execrable George Pataxme Pataki jumped on the Hoffman bandwagon, this:

This afternoon Dede Scozzafava betrayed the GOP. She endorsed a Pelosi Democrat who will spend more, tax more, and push the liberal agenda that is dragging down this nation.

The GOP true believers all but got through calling Scozzafava a Marxist whore for the past three weeks, and she betrayed them? Keep talking, guys. Also, Pelosi!

The Watertown Daily Times initially endorsed Ms. Scozzafava as the best-qualified candidate in the race. We still think she is. However, in suspending her campaign she released her supporters’ commitment to her. That left voters to choose between Mr. Owens and Mr. Hoffman.

Of the two, Bill Owens is by far the superior and only choice.

The Democratic candidate has demonstrated a willingness to listen to people about ways in which he could help the district as their representative in Washington. Mr. Owens has remained focused on the economy and job creation throughout his campaign. At the same time, he has shown an understanding of the military, a keen desire to help dairy farmers, an ability to work with labor unions and an eagerness to learn more about the vast, 11-county district that he hopes to represent.

Mr. Owens seems to approach politics and challenges with an open mind, a generous spirit and a can-do attitude. He has conducted a dignified campaign in comparison to Doug Hoffman.

Mr. Hoffman is running as an ideologue. If he carries out his pledges on earmarks, taxation, labor law reform and other inflexible positions, Northern New York will suffer. This rural district depends on the federal government for an investment in Fort Drum and its soldiers, environmental protection of our international waterway and the Adirondack Park, and the livelihood of all our dairy farmers across the district, among other support. Our representative cannot be locked into rigid promises and policies that would jeopardize these critical sectors of our economy.

For a member of Congress, there may be a time to promote reform in Washington, but there is also a time to work within a system that best serves the people you represent.

It is frightening that Mr. Hoffman is so beholden to right-wing ideologues who dismiss Northern New Yorkers as parochial when people here simply want to know how Mr. Hoffman will protect their interests in Washington.

The race has changed, but voters still face an important choice. Northern New York must send to Congress a representative who serves their interests first and foremost.

As noted above, the endorsed Republican candidate has been effectively purged from the Republican Party, and some sort of conservative purity is, therefore, effectively preserved. Or something. Scozzafava has released all her supporters, and the party chairs who backed her, to do whatever they want.

Scozzafava could have – but didn’t – aggressively combat Hoffman’s onslaught. As I did before, I attribute this to the failure of Albany politics. She has been in the Assembly since 1999 – that’s ten years in office with the benefit of what Albany incumbency means. Once confronted with a motivated, well-funded opponent, she was all done.

The Republican Party has moved out of the big tent and they’re all huddled in a much smaller shelter. In the South.

The reality is that a lot of Scozzafava’s ex-supporters, many of whom don’t like either Hoffman or Owens, simply won’t vote. And some of them will still wind up casting their ballots for Scozzafava undaunted, as she’ll still appear on the ballot and may have made herself something of a sympathetic figure. Certainly, it would seem to help Hoffman if Scozzafava decided to endorse him — but only 15 percent of Scozzafava’s voters had a favorable view of Hoffman, so they aren’t going to come over easily, if at all.

What Doug Hoffman really has is an accountant’s willingness to repeat what he’s told. Glenn Beck is mad as hell about ACORN? So is Doug Hoffman. The Concerned Women for America don’t like abortion? Neither does Doug Hoffman. The Family Research Council hates gay people? So does Doug. Did you bring the check?

No one cares about their accountant’s life story. They just need him to get the numbers to work.

Still, it must be hard to get a crowd fired up. Even the name, “Doug.” It’s like someone started writing “Douglas” and lost interest.

I haven’t seen any of Hoffman’s lit, but it apparently hearkens back to that magical 1980 when Reagan was elected, the US won the cold war through hockey, and we had hostages in Iran.

I guess Doug Hoffman had some role in the Miracle on Ice, although, if memory serves, the assist went to Pavelich. Hoffman was the Olympics’ accountant. (The Games ended up $6 million in debt and had to be bailed out by Jimmy Carter.) The connection between Hoffman’s math skills and the Reagan Revolution is a bit of a stretch.

Did you know that NY-23 is now ground zero for the civil war underway within the Republican Party? After Republican Representative John McHugh resigned the seat to become Secretary of the Army, the RNC selected Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R, I, WF) to run for the vacant seat, while the Democratic candidate is lawyer and Air Force veteran, Bill Owens.

But there’s a third candidate in the race. Doug Hoffman is a member of the usually fusiony Conservative Party, but there’s something genuinely interesting at play here. The ultra-right conservative movement has seemingly more hatred for Dede Scozzafava than for the Democrat, Owens.

For an extra $4.60, I can add a 23-mile detour to Ogdensburg, N.Y., walk to the Canadian border and urinate on the other side. Just sayin’ . .

Hahahahaha! Because they’re Canadian!

This from the same crowd who earlier this year breathlessly supported the lazy Albany career hack Jim Tedisco – an empty-suited RINO if ever there was one – in the NY-20 special election.

Far be it from me to get my hands dirty while the Republicans are busy further damaging the remnants of their brand, but it’s a fascinating battle going on between the traditional northeastern moderate Republican establishment that has a libertarian streak on social issues and believes in lowering taxes and spending, and the whacko Cheneyistas who think anyone to the left of Michelle Malkin is a commie heretic.